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the North and Baltic Seas, to the circulation model of the Bundesamt fur Seeschiffahrt und 
Hydrographie (Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency). 
The predictive skill of the models depends not only on their mathematical and physical basis 
and on the available computer resources but particularly on the data basis. To improve the 
latter aspect, further efforts will have to be made both with respect to the in-situ and remote 
sensing data. 
The surveillance of the global and maritime climate, the identification and prediction of 
changes and trends and their impacts on regional and local scales is a goal which has led to a 
wide variety of national and international activities. The decisive question as to what extent 
anthropogenic influences have already begun to affect the climate cannot yet be definitely 
answered at the present point in time. Therefore, it is important to continue to develop 
scientific investigation tools and to attribute high priority to the collection of suitable data 
and to climate monitoring. 
Products and services 
To cover the large demand for operational marine meteorological services, which comes from 
the entire marine industry, scientific and nautical institutions and authorities, coastal defence 
and disaster control organizations, environmental monitoring agencies, insurances and 
tourism, to mention just a few, the German Weather Service has developed a range of 
optimized services to meet the specific requirements. The programme encompasses marine 
meteorological forecasts and warnings, route recommendations for shipping, advice and 
information on the current and future weather and its development, wave forecasts, climate 
reports, expert opinions on past weather situations, climatological stress parameters and cargo 
damage, among many other services. 
Complementing the wide range of services are data and products on the Internet and special 
products available as on-line services. 
In the Marine Climatological Summaries Scheme of WMO, eight states including Germany 
have committed themselves to issuing 10-year, or on demand annual, statistics of marine 
meteorological parameters for their areas of responsibility, through their meteorological 
services. The German Weather Service is in charge of the Atlantic from 20°N to 50°S and 
publishes its results regularly. 
In a compilation of marine meteorological data from the German coastal zone issued monthly 
by DWD, which also contains an interpretation and graphs, a monthly survey is given of 
climate developments in that area. 
DWD also evaluates global atmospheric pressure, temperature and precipitation data 
(CLIMAT and SYNOP) and, on that basis, prepares monthly and annual reports containing 
anomaly analyses of these parameters in the form of charts, tables, and texts. 
It collects, evaluates, and archives world-wide hurricane data for reporting and information 
purposes. Monthly surveys and charts showing their tracks are also published.